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Re: Salvaging foundation with some wax moth webbing

Re: Salvaging foundation with some wax moth webbing

If it's not just COVERED in webbing and wax moth stuff, then the bees in a really strong hive will clean it up, repair, and reuse. If it's covered, then yes scrap it of with like a stiff plastic spatula and depending on the condition of the wax surface of the foundation, use as is, or paint or dip or whatever some more wax on there.

Re: Salvaging foundation with some wax moth webbing

Don't forget to look in the grooves where the plastic foundation slips into the top and bottom grooves for wax moth larva. I had a bait hive sit all winter and it got really infested with small and large wax moths. I scraped off the plastic foundation and thought I got them all until I popped out the foundation out of curiosity. Man was it packed. Head to tail all the way from end board to end board.

Has anyone tried steaming the wax off the plastic foundation using a wallpaper steam remover? I saw a video on doing it to old wax comb.

Re: Salvaging foundation with some wax moth webbing

Depending on the amount of webbing (see above about that) scrape etc. As for larva in the grooves freeze it for a couple of days and they will die as will any eggs. Then treat as new plastic foundation.

Re: Salvaging foundation with some wax moth webbing

If the wax moths really take it over and get done, you just shake off the webs and put it back in the hive. If they half webbed it up, then I would scrap it down to the plastic. If there is only an occasional web, I might just leave it and put it in a strong hive to clean it up.

Re: Salvaging foundation with some wax moth webbing

Im currently in Al for a class and attended a local meeting and heard an interesting way of getting rid of empty wax comb with wax moths. The speaker said to take a bee box with the frames and cram it down on a red ant hill. He said they will clean all the comb from any wax moth larvea and a night will crawl back into there hill for you to retrieve.

Yes, I set up a wallpaper steamer very similar to the youtube video, it works great. The only problem is, if you use plastic foundation or frames, it will warp them badly enough to call them destroyed and you'll have to toss them in the trash can. I scraped the frames and put the old pupa casing wax into a 5 gallon paint strainer bag. I packed it in very tightly too. I then put the bag in the beebox and attached the steamer hose and let her steam. It worked very well, I got much more wax than I thought I would from my past efforts at melting down old brood comb. Oh, I had the beebox of wax sitting on top of a stack of a couple boxes and it was tilted so it drained the wax into a 5 gallon bucket.

"A good day is when no one shows up and you don't have to go anywhere." - Burt Shavitz (Burt's Buzz)

Re: Salvaging foundation with some wax moth webbing

Originally Posted by Widdy

The speaker said to take a bee box with the frames and cram it down on a red ant hill. He said they will clean all the comb from any wax moth larvea and a night will crawl back into there hill for you to retrieve.

I really like this idea. Wish I had thought of it when I had this problem one year. May as well put the fire ants to work.

Re: Salvaging foundation with some wax moth webbing

I caught a big swarm last year and didn't have very much equipment that was not in use so I gave them some comb that I had already culled to get rid of - much worse than in your pictures - and they fixed it up like new by the first time I inspected them. Your mileage may vary.